Nigeria is a beautiful country, a great nation of intelligent, ingenious and pragmatic population. The entity called Nigeria is a giant, yes, a weak one or even a diseased one, but still a giant. I hear so many people wish they were not Nigerians, but I boldly defer because I am proudly happy that I am , I am part and parcel of a country that can change history, if only they can heal collectively. The diseased giant can be a real giant, a healthy one that will proudly stand in the exalted comity of nations imbued with greatness and raise her hands and be counted. Sadly, the diseases that plague this great nation are self inflicted, making a sane person wonder if the giant wants to self destruct.
I don't want to delve into the amalgamation sermon, nor do I want to talk about the struggles, executions, independence, civil war, marginalization, Ogoni nine, the various coups, June 12 or the present political whirlwinds , mudslinging and cajoling which our shameless breed of politicians engage in. I leave others to write more on already well written subjects, even though I know that those issues are the precursors to the diseases, though not the main diseases. These diseases are so deadly that they can kill this great giant silently or violently through a heart attack, stroke or even cancer. Some of the diseases are neurological, some are cancerous, while most are in the form of food poisoning. Na wah o! The earlier we stop misdiagnosing,the better for us-- our great Dora Akunyili (may her soul rest in perfect peace) suffered a small misdiagnosis outside these shores (if what we heard and read is true) while our doctors got it right- this became fatal years later ,that is the deadly nature of misdiagnosis.
This is a nation of dogged citizens, men and women with lion hearts, youths who chase causes and see them bear fruits, people who force change and who make nations quake and tremble when they shout in unison (check out the fuel subsidy protests, Chibok girls voices and the just concluded elections). This is a nation where our brains are academically tuned in and sound, we conquer wherever we tread ,and pitch wherever we see humans exist and eke out livelihoods. Nigerians can build empires in deserts repeatedly (but yet, we lack loyalty), see how united we are outside these shores (yet inside, we aren't).
Naija as we fondly call ourselves, has been repeatedly sabotaged by her own, betrayed by her own, cheated and scorned by her own and yet, she stands. Let us look at the diseases. There has been so many false dawns in this country , people got excited over nothing, flew into cloud nine and were mockingly brought back to earth and reality with a high crashing bang. If we genuinely love our nation as we profess, we will never wish her ill again, we will collectively cure her or make genuine attempt to. Genuine efforts yield a high level of positive results in everything they are applied to. The fact that heart attack is mostly fatal scares me, a heart attack is a serious medical emergency in which the supply of blood to the heart is suddenly blocked, usually by a blood clot. Lack of blood to the heart can seriously damage the heart muscle.
A heart attack is known medically as a myocardial infarction or MI.
Symptoms can include: chest pain – the chest can feel like it is being pressed or squeezed by a heavy object, and pain can radiate from the chest to the jaw, neck, arms and back, shortness of breath, feeling weak and/or lightheaded
overwhelming feeling of anxiety. Now, this disease (heart condition) is plaguing Nigeria in the form of TRIBALISM, with all the attendant symptoms of Myocardial Infarction (MI, not Abaga). Tribalism tore the fabrics of peace and unity in our coat of arm and national anthem. The attendant symptom of chest pain destroyed our peace which breeds our unity and plunged us into a dark dungeon that breeds suspicion, hatred and lack of trust. Now, relate the symptoms of pain radiating from the chest (centre of the nation, Abuja) to the jaw, neck, arms, back etc (the states), shortness of breath (a stuttering government), feeling weak and light headed with an overwhelming feeling of anxiety (we witnessed this pre-election, and only the calm surrender of President GEJ, calmed the already raw nerves nationwide), this ought not to be so. In the throes of tribalism, post presidential election brought up the "how Ibos cheated themselves out of the national equation in voting PDP( as if we are supposed to actually run a one party system void of opposition), the lagoon saga and the ranting tribal worm and maggot infested doctor in the USA" Shame on all who fanned those embers and pushed us to the precipice and tension filled edge of near volcano.
This brings us to to the issue of stroke as it concerns the country. Stroke attacks the country in the form of insurgency and militancy. What is a stroke? Medically, a stroke is a serious, life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. Strokes are a medical emergency and urgent treatment is essential because the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen.
Signs and symptoms
The main symptoms of stroke can be remembered with the word FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.
Face – the face may have dropped on one side, the person may not be able to smile or their mouth or eye may have dropped.
Arms – the person with suspected stroke may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of arm weakness or numbness in one arm.
Speech – their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing to be awake.
Time – it is time to dial 999 immediately if you see any of these signs or symptoms. Now, don't wonder why I had to even include the symptoms, let's look at insurgency and militancy and relate it with the definition of stroke, "when the blood supply to the part of the brain is cut off" it becomes life threatening right? Now, we can't forget too soon what militancy did to the supply of oil and generation of national income , the blood supply (crude) to the brain (national treasury) was cut off or nearly cut off, then Boko Haram became active (cutting off the blood supply in the form of food, to the nation). Militancy in the Niger Delta and the Boko Haram issue were and are still national emergencies, bringing us to the part of the definition that says " Strokes are a medical emergency and urgent treatment is essential because the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen". Now, those that were directly affected by the insurgency and militancy will school you more on it, I won't bore you with that.
If we look at the symptoms of stroke, Nigeria suffered all 1. Face – the face may have drooped on one side, the person may not be able to smile or their mouth or eye may have drooped. This explains why we were globally shamed on our fight against terror, when we seemed to be speaking from two sides of the mouth, when we couldn't smile because each day brought terrible news of death and more deaths, internally displaced persons (IDP's) and the icing (the kidnaps and sacking of entire villages amidst military presence) of which Chibok took the front pages. We couldn't smile because there was nothing to smile about, we couldn't function properly as a nation because even the capital territory was not spared (if you remember that most people working at the city centre operate from Nyanya- Mararaba axis).
Arms – the person with suspected stroke may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of arm weakness or numbness in one arm. When I saw this symptom, whole lot of thoughts flew through my head, now, there is an adage in my place that says that the strength of a man in his arms and sons. Our military couldn't easily grapple and fight the militants (especially because of the terrain), if you have spent time at the creeks, you will understand and appreciate what they had to contend with. Fast forward to the North East, the terrains are different, but the conditions are almost same (in terms of arm weakness or numbness). We appeared ill equipped at most times and incurred heavy casualties. Young and fine soldiers were needlessly killed by the fact that their formations, platoons of battalions were ragtag before their opposition, plunging most families into darkness and perpetual grief. I have started a documentary on this issue, and would like the affected families reading this to key in and share their stories, lest we forget. One family in particular, groomed this fine soldier, a captain, their light and hope, only to lose him and get pushed back to zero level and the poverty dungeons they were almost crawling out from. I weep!
Speech – their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing to be awake. Lol! Can you relate to this? It was all garbled speech all the way, look at the part that said "or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing awake" that was our lot in the face of the militancy, that was an even bigger lot in the face of the Boko Haram insurgency till the six weeks that election postponement heralded, Nigeria was awake but couldn't speak properly, our voice left us and when we found it, the speech was garbled.
Time – it is time to dial 999 immediately if you see any of these signs or symptoms. I don't want to talk about this because our lackadaisical ways of handling issues, local, national or global came to fore. We couldn't tackle these issues head on, our security reports were not used ASAP and we were just reactive instead of proactive. We were too slow to act, bloods were spilled and shared (according to our First Lady) and we never remembered that there is God because most of those in positions to attack the issue properly or guide the President right were profiting from the situation, they didn't want the country to recover, bringing my mind to a saying in my place that "ala adighi mma bu uru ndi Nze" meaning that "when a land is having turbulence and problems, it is the Nze's that benefit".
This brings me to another disease that is killing this nation, CANCER (IN THE FORM OF CORRUPTION AND GREED). Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissue. Cancer also known as a malignant tumor or malignant neoplasm, is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Now, corruption has dealt with us in this manner, it divides uncontrollably and spreads, killing off good cells. The cancer in our system are our executive, legislators and part of the judiciary and most heads of public corporations, government offices, parastatals and agencies. They have ruined this country, thinking that a call to service is a call to fund personal treasury. There is no element of patriotism in them, no iota of truth, no conscience for the plight of those who they are supposed to representing. After all, they can loot and go free, no one will prosecute them, worst case scenario, they enter a plea bargain! Kai! Is this fair? A nation greatly blessed will have her citizens as disease to her system. This is our time syndrome, where no one cares in the pillaging of the joint national treasury and resources. Tell me why a director can afford to send three to four kids abroad to study, why would a politician spend money with reckless abandon and make us borrow to service his lifestyle and pay higher for goods and services while the crunch is been felt by the common man. There are no jobs in the country( while they go about distributing the choice jobs amongst their children, cronies, nieces, nephews, cousins and relatives), the common man cannot afford to build a house, even when you spend 35years working and toiling for the government, your pension cannot give you a befitting house. How does it look that our senior citizens (of which my mum is one) will retire for years without receiving their gratuities and most times don't get their pensions on time (what if they don't have children to support them?). How does it look that smart young men and women cannot contest and hold seats and political offices simply because they don't have money to spray around or bribe their way through? ( rightly, a twenty year old won a seat in the UK parliament few days ago). How does it look that out of frustration, our young ones push drugs and get caught and executed abroad? ( someone said it is because they are not satisfied with what they have, I say noooo! What do they have? Do you know the living hell they call life on daily basis with the attendant pressures?). People suffer because their leaders are greedy and eat this country like cancer cells. People suffer because our past and present leaders have steadily disappointed us, no national planning for the teeming population, no provision for the yearly burgeoning graduates, no arrangement for industrialization, commercialization and exponential agricultural growth to harness our great productive potentials.
When I look at our fathers generation, I weep. That generation finished Nigeria, they gave us civil war as young men, the gulped down our oil windfall, devalued our Naira, created tribal and religious sentiments, stole our democracy, embezzled our joint national fund, refused to die and inflicted suffering on the present generation. I am in my thirties, my generation never enjoyed the scholarships and free educations they enjoyed, federal scholarship boards died during our time because merit selection was scraped for favoritism, jobs became an issue for night vigils and praying and fasting just like the land rush in the US, they rushed all meaningful properties, acquired all and drove price of everything up while living ostentatiously on our money as if they have cited any industry somewhere. For them, political offices are life long oil wells and that too should be pensionable.
Our youths, are becoming wiser, no more ranting on social media, no more being swayed by peanuts, because when the peanut finishes, hunger rules. The revolution is just starting, new leaders are gradually emerging. Soon, our father's generation will retire (either to their numerous houses, old age or grave), not that we wish them bad, at least we can still tap from the most devious old minds as long as they have experiences which we can tap from( the positive ones). God will help us!
